German Team Achieves Ultrafast Shaping of Extreme Ultraviolet Pulses Using High-Density Helium Gas
August 20, 2026, the international team led by researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics (MPIK) in Heidelberg announced that they have utilized atomic gas as a rapidly switchable time-varying lens to control the beam shape and spectrum of intense high-frequency laser pulses. This achievement is expected to provide a new pathway for the fine control of extreme ultraviolet (XUV) and X-ray pulses, and may serve research directions such as improved spectroscopic methods, control of chemical reactions, and quantum computing. Extreme ultraviolet light can provide important tools for studying atomic-scale processes. With the development of free-electron lasers, researchers have been able to generate ultrashort, high-intensity XUV light pulses, but how to manipulate them like...
2026-08-31
